I made an excursion thither on August 17th, with the object of looking up and recording, if worth while, any rare or interesting plants. A single visit, and that so late in the year, can hardly give a fair idea of the a flora of a district; however, I submit to your readers some notes an that excursion, Starting from Birdingbury Station, on the Rugby and Leamington line, I noticed, just outside the station, Lotus tenuis, Sison Amomum, Silaus pratensis, Carduus eriophorus, Senecio erucifolius. In former years I have turned up Galium tricorne, Linaria spuria and Elatine in the first corn-field, adjoining the road to Frankton. Leaving Birdingbury village, on my way to the wharf, I observed Scabiosa columbaria and Carduus acaulis, both growing abundantly in a meadow on the right of the road, some 300 or 400 yards past a windmill, and a little further on Brachypodium pinnatum growing with B. sylvaticum, Silene inflata, and Picris hieracioides in abundance. From Birdingbury Wharf I followed the canal to Napton, observing on my way Sparganium simplex, Alisma lanceolata, Lotus tenuis again in plenty, and close to Napton Rumex viridis. By the reservoir I saw Nasturtium amphibium, Helminthotheca echioides, Polygonum amphibium and terrestre, Stachys palustris, Potamogeton lucens, Juncus tamprocarpus and compressus, Carex hirta; in a cornfield on Napton Hill were Centaurea Scabiosa, and a plant which seemed to be some hybrid form, possibly Stachys ambigua, a hybrid between S. palustris and sylvatica, but much more nearly approaching the former than the latter. In fact. it appeared to differ from S. palustris only in having less elongated racemes, terminating somewhat abruptly, all the leaves shortly petioled and oblong-lanceolate, and in its habitat, growing as it did in a dry cornfield on a hill of considerable elevation, (from which, by the way, I obtained a magnificent view of the surrounding country,) and not a single specimen only, but in great abundance. The leaves are all shortly petioled, petioles one to three lines long, smaller than in S. palustris, rather crenate than serrate, and the whole plant is smaller generally than in S. palustris. It has been suggested to me that the spot might be a reclaimed marsh, and that this plant is the remains of the marsh vegetation, and hence its starved appearance. This I do not think at all likely; the appearance of the ground seemed to me to preclude the possibility of its ever haying been a marsh or anything approaching one, being, as I have said, on a hill of considerable height, and of a dry soil; and, moreover, the plant was in great abundance growing amongst the wheat. Perhaps some render of the "Midland Naturalist” can give same explanation. The last observations I made were at Shuckburgh, viz., Conium maculatum, Circaea lutetiana, and remarkably luxuriant forms of Brachypodium sylvaticum, attaining, I should say, over 4ft. in height—H. W. Trott, Rugby.
The Royal Oak at Boscobel.—In the report of the excursion of the Shropshire Archæological and Natural History Society, in the last number of the "Midland Naturalist,” the age of the tree how shown as the Royal Oak is discussed. It is said that in 1857 its girth was 11ft. 4in. at 4ft. from the ground. I have counted the rings and measured the average rate of growth of a good many trees of various kinds, and have adopted as a rough but fairly accurate estimate of the age of oaks, that every foot diameter represents about fifty years of growth. The increase is greatest in middle life. The annual ring of wood is never less that (illegible text) of an inch thick, and not often more than ¼ inch. Taking the average as ⅛ all round the trunk, the diameter would increase ¼ inch anally, or a foot in forty-eight years. A tree 11ft.4in. in girth is 3ft. 9½in. in diameter, which according to this calculation would represent about 180 years of growth. But the tree in which the King took shelter must have been in 1857 about 250 years old. The rapidity of growth is affected by soil and climate, and I do net know the soil of Boscobel. If it is poor and shallow
